I.S.A. HOLDS DECEMBER FORUM: SPIRITUALITY & PRAXIS IN PROMOTING PEACE & JUSTICE

Is there hope for a country engaged in political conflict, war on drugs, killings, child soldiers recruited and trained to be future warriors or terrorists?

Yes, Marites Guingona-Africa, Ph.D. says, as long as we are capable of engaging our moral imagination so that we are able to make choices out of love and not of fear, there is hope. Hope dwells in our human capacity for transcending our fears with courage so that we can see the realities of the world around us with clarity of vision, and respond to it with integrity of co-creative actions. These are actions that arise from deeply-held spiritual values and convictions rooted in the certainty that there is a divine force bigger than ourselves that embraces us with love despite our human frailties.

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In 1998, while completing her Master’s degree in Theological Studies at the Loyola School of Theology, burning questions about the call of her Catholic faith plagued Dr. Africa. Why has religion largely been a source of conflict rather than a resource for peace throughout human history? Why do people of faith fight each other in the name of God? Seeking for answers moved her to engage in the field of interfaith dialogue and peacebuilding and, in 2001, establish The Peacemakers’ Circle Foundation, Inc. (TPCFI). In 2015, after over a decade of work in the field, she attained a Ph.D. in Applied Cosmic Anthropology at the Asian Social Institute with a comprehensive phenomenological study on “Adequatio for Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding in the Experience of The Peacemakers’ Circle.”

In her talk last December 9 – the eve of International Human Rights Day – Dr. Africa highlighted the practice of Inner Work for Self-Awareness and Transformation as essential to the endeavour of preparing ourselves to be capable organs of Dialogue, and true instruments of peace. This echoed the call of the compelling words attributed to Mahatma Gandhi that urge us to “be the change that we wish to see in the world.” Unless we work on ourselves, purify our minds and open our hearts so that we are able to humanize the “other” as fellow human beings (and not demonize or condemn them as our enemies), lasting peace cannot be possible.   

In the endeavour of building mutually respectful and harmonious human relationships, it is important to realize and accept the fact that conflict is normal, and that it is a “motor of change” (citing J.P. Lederach), Dr. Africa reiterated. Conflict is rooted in people’s differences. Learning how to deal with differences through various forms of Dialogue and Heart Listening is the secret of peacebuilding. For Dr. Africa, Dialogue is not merely the exchange of words, but a way of being in relationship with oneself, with God, and fellow beings. In the Christian faith, Jesus Christ–the “Word” of God (Jn 1:14)—is the embodiment of Dialogue, of God’s message of Love for all humankind and Creation. In this light, the foundation of “dialogue” is love. And where there is love, fear has no place (1 Jn 4:18).

The open forum that followed the presentation was animated as participants asked questions and shared struggles from their personal experiences. Before they parted, they reached out to one another with warm gestures inspiring shared hope of “peace.”

 Dr. Carmen Alviar